While art inevitably springs from the creative psyche of an individual, it cannot help but reflect a time and place.
At different points in history, a mix of economic, social and cultural factors have aligned to produce an intense burst of artistic activity, including the Italian Renaissance in Florence and the rise of abstract-expressionism in New York City after World War II.
In recent decades, Great Britain and Germany have experienced moments at the forefront of the international art scene. But in the past 10 years or so, the spotlight has been firmly fixed on China, where an explosion in creativity has mirrored spectacular economic growth.
Through Dec. 30, the Robischon Gallery offers an exciting glimpse of this Asian giant’s booming art scene, with more than 25 paintings and sculptures by 13 individual artists and the Luo Brothers – three siblings who work as one collaborative group.
A show worthy of a contemporary-art museum, showcasing artists grappling with ancient traditions amid the flux of the now, it is an unusually ambitious undertaking for a Denver commercial art gallery. And it is precisely the kind of international-level, avant-garde exhibit that needs to become much more frequent if this city is to become a true art center.
Thanks in part to Vail collectors Kent and Vicki Logan, contemporary Chinese art has had considerable visibility in Denver. In 2004, overlapping exhibitions took place at the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver and Denver Art Museum.
The latter, “Full Frontal: Contemporary Asian Art from the Logan Collection,” was a knockout presentation of 13 paintings, sculptures and photographs from the Logans’ 2002 bequest of more than 200 works to the museum.
Chinese art is also a big part of “Radar: Selections From the Collection of Vicki and Kent Logan,” the largest and splashiest of the three temporary exhibitions on view as part of the much-publicized opening of the Denver Art Museum’s $110 million Hamilton Building.
The Robischon show, “Under the Radar: Chinese Contemporary Art,” which obviously draws its title from that latest offering, provides an ideal follow-up and complement to these recent presentations.
By working directly with the artists and bypassing their high-powered dealers and galleries, the Robischon Gallery was able to obtain surprisingly high-quality examples, including some reproduced in monographs by the participants.
To establish contacts with the artists, the gallery obtained the assistance of two pairs of local collectors of Chinese art – Michael and Jean Micketti and Tom and Michelle Whitten. Especially helpful was Tom, who lived in China and speaks Mandarin.
The Logans also chipped in, loaning three not-for-sale “anchor pieces,” as co-owner Jennifer Doran called them. These include Chen Wenling’s playful “Happy Life No. 4,” consisting of a 7-foot-tall white fiberglass sculpture of a mother pig doing a headstand and four of her frolicking children.
“It was all very much a community effort,” Doran said.
Even though most of the artists represented have generally established international reputations expected of older, mid-career figures, virtually all are in their early 40s or younger and were among the first to emerge after the Cultural Revolution.
They are working at a time when China stands at an extraordinary crossroads of history. It is undergoing unprecedented economic and technological upheaval as it transforms into a world power capable of challenging the United States in almost every domain.
But with change comes uncertainty and challenge. These artists, like their fellow citizens, are trying to come to grips with what it means to be Chinese in this evolving world, where everything Western, especially its turbocharged consumerism, seems to be implanting itself.
This uneasy intersection of values can be seen in selections such as Zhao Bo’s “Hero,” a 5-foot-square painting with electric colors and a pop sensibility. Bug-eyed figures seem to focus on everything but the here and now, as advertisements and such mass-media icons as Spiderman and Ronald McDonald try to grab their attention.
These artists are also trying to understand how the new can or should align with the country’s centuries-old history. Lu Peng incorporates the imagery of traditional Chinese painting in “Realm of Red,” with its elegantly fractured figurative imagery.
This 57-by-78-inch watercolor on textured Japanese paper or an equivalent is one of the show’s stunners. Working in an infamously unforgiving medium, Lu Peng displays a dazzling precision and technique worthy of the European old masters. It is a remarkable piece.
Other standout works include five intense if wispy portraits by Shen Xiaotong, all exploring questions of identity; Yan Lei’s “Painting No. 14,” a three-part tour de force with its careful gradations of color, and Yue Minjun’s haunting untitled watercolor, depicting dozens of semi-abstract crows flying over dark water.
Arguably Denver’s best commercial-gallery show of the year, “Under the Radar” would be a worthy exhibit anywhere.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
“Under the Radar: Chinese Contemporary Art”
Through Dec. 30|Paintings and sculptures by 14 top contemporary Chinese artists|Robischon Gallery, 1740 Wazee St.|Free|11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays (303-298-7788 or robischongallery.com)
